Guide Gear 18’ Jumbo Ladder Tree Stand for Hunting with Seat and Shooting Rest, Deer Hunting Accessories Camo

Assembly instructions were a little sketchy but with these producst, always are. After assembly, stand is very sturdy and I really like the fact that seat area is wider than any other single person stands I have purchased in the past. Leaves room to move around a bit more. The floor area goes all the way back so you can place things such as bottles of water under the seat. One other plus to me is that the seat lifts up so you can easily stand and have a platform large enough to move for an archery shot. For the price, best fixed stand I have ever purchased. I'll get another or two for next season.

This stand is really nice and very sturdy! I don't care about paint but for whoever is buying this stand the paint will probably be peeling off, several other people have had the same problem. And the instructions are pretty poor, but it is all worth it in the end. Otherwise highly recommended.

The assembly of this stand is difficult and time consuming. This is mostly due to the lack of instructions. Also setting it up in the woods is definitely a 2 person minimum job because it is so top heavy. However, once you do get it together and set up it is possibly the best stand I have ever used. It is solid as a rock. The platform is huge, I use it for archery hunting and it is perfect.

Pros:1. Flip-up seat2. Flip-up shooting rail3. Flip-up foot rest4. HUGE platform area for comfortable sitting and placing pack, etc5. Good height to seat6. Expanded metal foot platform7. Armrests high enough for safety and low enough for archery8. Should be very stable (haven't set it on a tree, yet) with its twin stabilizer bars, criss-crossed and ratchet straps, and pinned/sleeved ladder extensionsCons:1. Assembly takes way too long: bulk-packaged hardware, metric sizes; but, you only have to do it once.2. Paint quality is a joke; you can flake it off with a fingernail3. Seat platform is horizontal bars, not expanded mesh; will likely become uncomfortable if you sit for hours4. Cushion fabric is noisy

just put it together yesterday. little flimsy but needs to be otherwise it would be too heavy to move around and set up. Setting it up takes a few people as it is "un-wildely". 18 feet is a pretty long latter (top heavy with the platform too) This one was missing one of the ratcheting tie downs. I do think they are necessary too. All in all, once up, it will work great. Hoping it doesn't rust too fast though. Instructions were ok but it took a litttle to figure out which bolts went where (length). Use a ruler to save time. No extra parts either. Assemble in an area where should you drop a nut you will be able to find it. Could use some feet on the bottom of the ladder. Looking forward to using it. Be prepared to touch up the paint after assembly. Will need to update after hunting for some time in it.

For the money a great stand. It's of pretty good quality and I really like it's size and the way the seat folds up and out of the way. I read in reviews before my purchase some had problems with identifying the correct bolts to the steps in the assembly and I can see why. So this is what I did I grouped the bolts by size laying them on a piece of card board and penned the size next to each group. Really solved the problem and make the stand assembly go pretty smooth. Definitely takes two people to put the stand up.

Update:I sent pictures to the seller and got no response. Deer season is a couple weeks away so I figured screw it, I will just put it together and deal with it. The more I handled the pieces the more paint came off. To the point where some pieces were left with almost no paint at all. The quality control on these items is junk and so is the customer support. Other reviewers have had the paint issues, do a search. Don't purchase in my opinion. I will add more pictures post-assemblyOriginal review:There is one positive I will say about this style of stand in general before I get into the "meat" of my experience. I own a couple similar to this one and I like them a lot. The flip up seats and oversized seat/platform makes this stand extremely comfortable for sitting/standing for long periods of time. Now on to the badKeeping in mind this is a lower priced stand I will try to be fair in my review. The package arrived destroyed at my doorstep with parts hanging out of the box. I don't know why companies still ship with FedEx, I have never had a good experience with them but I digress.I expected there to be a few nicks and dings on the stand considering the shape of the box and honestly, considering it's a ladderstand that will spend it's life outdoors, I didn't really care. I opened the box and all of the parts were there, thank goodness. However, as I pulled the parts out I noticed large areas of missing paint that had flaked off several of the pieces. The metal parts were already rusting where the paint was missing and one piece was covered in rust. Again, this thing is going to get rusted out in the wild, but I don't think it's acceptable to have it rusted right out of the box. There was definitely some nicks and scrapes from shipping but I can't really say if the excessive paint loss was attributed to poor shipping or poor quality control, either way this customer is dissapointedI have put together dozens of ladderstands over the years and this one is no different. The instructions are poor and the parts list is confusing. It does have an exploded diagram and that is the saving grace for assembly.If this was a $200 stand I would give it zero stars (I know, not possible) but since it was ~$100 and the stand is useable as is, I gave it two stars. Returning it isn't even an option since the box is utterly destroyed, otherwise I would do just that. In the past I have bought stands around $70-$80 that are almost identical to this stand but had much higher quality control.If the seller is monitoring these reviews I would appreciate some feedback. I have contacted them and I will update this review if they can do anything to make this a better experience.